Improving Microsoft Search personal query history in SharePoint Online – a few weeks ago, at the Ignite conference, Microsoft announced that they will add a new option in Microsoft Search which will allow users to view and manage their personal queries history. The original announced message name was “We’re improving Microsoft Search with personal query history”, here in this article we will learn about what exactly is the “Improving Microsoft Search with personal query history” feature in SharePoint Online and how this will work.
Microsoft search update – Microsoft Search personal query history
- The key points of “Microsoft Search: Use, view, and manage your personal query history” feature status
- Microsoft Update Number & Details
- How will the “Microsoft Search: Use, view, and manage your personal query history” feature affect your organization?
- What should we need to prepare for this update?
- When will this (Microsoft Search: Use, view, and manage your personal query history update) be rolled out?
- With this update – what is the real benefit will we get as a user?
The key points of “Microsoft Search: Use, view, and manage your personal query history” feature status
Microsoft Search is an intelligent search experience in Microsoft 365. Microsoft is improving Microsoft Search, adding a new option to view and manage your personal query history. With personal query history, you’ll see your recent queries as you begin typing in the search box to help you get back to insights and information you recently used or accessed so you’ll no longer have to bookmark your queries or memorize the right query to get you back to where you were. Your personal query history can be managed through your Office 365 My Account settings. New My Account privacy controls allow you to delete your query history or download your query history for future reference.
Feature ID: 67133
Added to Roadmap: 9/21/2020
Last Modified: 10/7/2020
Tags: Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant), Microsoft Search, Targeted Release
Microsoft Update Number & Details: Microsoft Search personal query history
MC223795, Stay Informed, Published date: Oct 8, 2020
The new feature, User impact
How will the “Microsoft Search: Use, view, and manage your personal query history” feature affect your organization?
With personal query history, users will see recent search queries across SharePoint Online and Outlook (web) as they begin typing in the search box. This prompt makes it easier to return to recently accessed insights and information. No need to bookmark or memorize your frequent queries. The personal query history is managed and downloaded through the Microsoft 365 My Account settings.

A new option in the My Account privacy controls enables employees to manage their personal query history, such as downloading their history for future reference.

What should we need to prepare for this update?
You might want to update your user documentation and training.
When will this (Microsoft Search: Use, view, and manage your personal query history update) be rolled out?
As of now “Microsoft Search: Use, view, and manage your personal query history” feature is in a development state. Microsoft search targeted release is expected to release worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) from November 2020, the original messages from Microsoft with respect to this announcement are as below:
- We will begin rolling out personal query history to Targeted Release customers in late November 2020.
- We will begin rolling out to Standard Release customers in late December and expect to complete the rollout by late March 2021.
With this update – what is the real benefit will we get as a user?
With this update, it will add huge benefits to end-users – they can re-use the previously used same query, and they don’t need to recollect the query or bookmark it anymore.
Disclaimer: Microsoft Search personal query history
Images used in this article have been taken from my trial office 365 account.
Summary: Microsoft Search personal query history
Thus, in this article, we got to know the below with respect to the “Microsoft Search: Use, view, and manage your personal query history” feature update:
- The key points of “Microsoft Search: Use, view, and manage your personal query history” feature status
- Microsoft Update Number & Details
- How will the “Microsoft Search: Use, view, and manage your personal query history” feature affect your organization?
- What should we need to prepare for this update?
- When will this (Microsoft Search: Use, view, and manage your personal query history update) be rolled out?
- With this update – what is the real benefit will we get as a user?
See Also: Microsoft 365 roadmap updates
You may also like the below Microsoft 365 Roadmap articles:
- New Feature: Manage how long guests can access SharePoint Online and OneDrive documents
- (Updated) New Feature: Cumulative analytics for SharePoint hubs in Office 365
- Reminder: SharePoint – Classic popularity reports to be retired – Office 365
- Retiring SharePoint 2010 Workflows from office 365 tenant – What should we do?
- How to turn on inline message translation in Microsoft Teams?
- Microsoft Teams: Teams Meeting support for 20,000 attendees
- Office 365: Cortana voice assistance in Teams mobile
- Set default page template in SharePoint online site (Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 64529)
- Microsoft 365 roadmap
